Set in the 1960s, “Moonrise Kingdom” tells the story of two young lovebirds who flee their small New England town, leading a search party to set after them. Anderson alums Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman star, as do Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Harvey Keitel. Newcomers Kaya Hayward and Jared Gilman play the runaways.

This is the first time the director has shown a film at Cannes. His past films include “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Life Aquatic” and “Rushmore.”

In a statement (via Wiretap), Cannes General Delegate Thierry Fremaux praised Anderson as “one of the rising powers of American cinema.”

“Sensitive and independent, this admirer of Fellini and Renoir is also in his own right a brilliant and inventive filmmaker,” he said.

The festival, which runs this year from May 16 to 27, opened in 2011 with Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” won Cannes top prize, the Palme d’Or.

Watch the trailer for “Moonrise Kingdom,” which opens in the United States May 25, below.